The Whistleblowers: Inside the UN

Whilst this is not much more than a talking heads documentary with archive footage, it does deliver a powerful message. A number of individuals who have all worked or are still working in the UN have basically whistleblown on a number of instances of UN personnel corruption or other crimes. These people all have diplomatic immunity and so all investigations are purely internal resulting in nothing much taking place as the UN clearly doesn't want to get its copybook blotted.

Whilst the programme focusses on activities in China, Russia and Haiti (French peacekeeping force) as well as sexual harassment cases against staff, the focus is on the clear corruption of the senior UN staff, not the countries involved. It is though a shame that any corruption that may have occurred relating to US or UK in excluded - would have been useful. Worth seeing - another mountain of corruption exposed. Anyone who sees this will see the UN in a different light from now on.

It makes sense though given the structure of the UN and how it operates. That is, the UN is a political organization with various missions paid for by the member states and donations, the bulk per capita coming from the US without any independent oversight. I suppose it's supposed to work that way because it's the UN. They're supposed to be the overseer. Like asking the fox to watch the chickens. Since they're not accountable to anyone, even to the member states, the only reference we have is the media. That this is the only time I've ever heard of corruption at the UN is very disturbing as much as hearing these stories. That they have the power to ignore laws around the world and basic human rights, and harass and intimidate with impunity is shocking but makes sense. So it raises a couple of questions. Why are US taxpayers contributing to this and why isn't there more scrutiny by the media, and questions about the transparency at the UN, and why aren't the media following up on these specific reports.